Resistance of Anticorrosive Coatings on Carbon Steel in Nine Cities of Ecuador

This study shows the protection level of various anticorrosive coatings applied on carbon steel through laboratory and field tests performed in a salt spray test chamber and a xenon arc testing machine for up to 500 hours. Field tests developed them during one year in nine cities of Ecuador (South America). Quito (two urban stations), Guayaquil (one station marine and another urban-marine), Santo Domingo (subtropical station), Manta (urban-marine), Portoviejo (urban), Machala (urban-marine), Latacunga (urban), Cuenca (industrial), and Esmeraldas (industrial-marine). Field tests allowed it to determine the corrosive category of these cities. The stations from Esmeraldas and Cuenca presented the most aggressive environments.  In this first-year study, the results obtained with these coatings evidence their behavior depends on the test station. This behavior explained remarkable differences in marine, industrial, mixed locations and those with high relative humidity.